This is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. Test and trace systems get underway in england and scotland today, as part of a more targeted approach to tackling coronavirus. Scientists say its not a magic bullet but government ministers hope it will allow lockdowns restrictions to be eased across the uk. If we all participate in this system when asked, then well be able to more safely lift the lockdown measures and lift the sort of the aggregate National Lockdown by having this more targeted approach. Beijing overwhelmingly endorses a hugely controversial bill that paves the way for a tough new security law in hong kong. Translation this is a major move
to practice one country, two systems and is also in line with chinas constitution and the basic law of hong kong. The number of people whove died with covid 19 in the United States has now passed 100,000. South korea is re imposing some social restrictions in its main cities, to combat a small spike in coronavirus cases. Nissan has announced the closure of its factory in barcelona with the loss of almost 3,000 jobs however, its sunderland production plant in the uk will remain open. Hello and welcome if youre
watching in the uk or around the world. We are covering the latest coronavirus stories here and globally. First. New coronavirus test and trace systems have gone live in england and scotland this morning. In an attempt to keep infection outbreaks contained, anyone whos been in close contact with someone who has tested positive will now be contacted and asked to self isolate. The uk government has said the english the system will change peoples lives scientists think it could prevent between 5 15 of cases. Northern ireland has its own version of the programme already up and running and in wales, their scheme is due to start in earlyjune. In the United States, more than 100,000 people have now died from covid i9. Apologies, that should say 100,000. That is the figure there. Thats more than the combined total of american fatalities
from the korean, vietnam and iraq wars. South korea is re introducing tougher social distancing measures after officials there recorded a fresh spike in coronavirus infections. 79 new cases were identified on thursday the highest daily figure for nearly two months. First, with this report on the test and trace system being rolled out in parts of the uk, heres charlotte rose. Weve all got used to the slogans and rules for tackling covid 19, but, from today, theres a further change, as parts of the uk move into the test and trace phase. The aim is to start to ease the nationwide lockdown and only bring it back in places where theres an outbreak. So, how will test and trace work in england . If you get symptoms a high fever, persistent cough or loss of taste and smell you must self isolate and order a test. If you test positive, the contact tracer will identify
people who youve been close enough to pass the virus to. Those contacts will be either classed as low or high risk. Contact tracers will then get in touch with people who might be at risk. Theyll be asked to isolate for 1h days, or get tested themselves if they develop symptoms. You might remember an app which was being trialled on the isle of wight. Thats not yet ready to be launched across england, so its not part of government plans. The new system will be dependent on people following the rules around self isolation. If you are contacted by nhs test and trace, instructing you to isolate, you must. It is your civic duty. So you avoid unknowingly spreading the virus and you help to break the chain of transmission. But some remain cautious about how well the new system will cope. You absolutely need rapid test turnaround. The International Standard is you should get the test results back within 24 hours. There are far too many places,
in terms of our trusts, the trusts that we represent, but also care homes who are saying they cant get results back any quicker than, for example, an average of 3 5 days. Later today, scotlands first minister Nicola Sturgeon is set to announce plans for an easing in lockdown measures. The first ministers already announced plans for a scottish test and protect system. Northern ireland has already launched its tracing system and wales is set to follow next week. It comes as a further 412 people died with coronavirus yesterday, taking the total number of deaths to 37,460. 117,013 tests were done yesterday, with 2,013 people testing positive. Those People Living in england will be the first to be contacted today as the new system launches. The government hopes these new measures will help to start to allow the economic and social recovery from the virus. Charlotte rose, bbc news. 0ur Health Correspondent, catherine burns, is here with me now. Hello to you, catherine. The test entries getting under way today but news of some teething problems . Weve heard from a tracer who has tried to log on and cant but there are 35,000 trying to logon and maybe thatis are 35,000 trying to logon and maybe that is it. Many traces are starting to make those calls, texts and e mails to around a dozen people who tested positive yesterday. 0k, e mails to around a dozen people who tested positive yesterday. Ok, that is how it works, they will essentially be trying to deal on a given day with the cases of people who have tested positive the previous day, get lots of information from them. It depends, of course, as we have already been discussing so far today, on people being open and being honest about where they have been, what they have been doing, even if that wasnt
keeping to a social distance. We are trying to break the chains of transmission here but every chain relies on its weakest link. Theres a few things. The tests need to come through quickly. The new target is 24 hour is. I had blood on monday i didnt get it to last night, so thats one thing, the tests need to come through quickly. The second thing is people need to be honest. They need to say what they have done, who they have seen and then, those further contacts need to all agreed to self isolate. 0ne those further contacts need to all agreed to self isolate. One way to see this is this is a waiter or open up see this is this is a waiter or open up the country for most people, for the many, but at the same time it will be toughening things for the few who seem to be at risk here. 0k, so some few who seem to be at risk here. 0k, so some people will be asked to take further measures, further steps to lock themselves down for the greater good. So say you get a call and you are told that you have been in contact with someone who does have the virus. The assay, actually, i had the virus weeks ago, im fine. Is that the case . Tough luck hancock has been on today talking about this, at this stage, is someone about this, at this stage, is someone who has had it, it doesnt matter. If you get the call, because we dont know how long immunity lasts for, if you get a call saying you have been in contact with someone, you have you have been in contact with someone, you have to go into isolation for two weeks. What about the members of your household, the same . Know, unless you or someone in the house develop symptoms. This isnt just staying at the house develop symptoms. This isntjust staying at home, it is isolating at home. Not lockdown as we know it but a step up from that. 0k, important to emphasise, isolate, not just stay at home. 0k, important to emphasise, isolate, notjust stay at home. You need to behave as if you have the virus. Let say you are perfectly well and you get the call and someone says, go into isolation. You may feel perfectly well but you have to behave as if you have it. That is staying away from your family. If you then feel ill, you can get
tested and have a certain answer but until you know otherwise, you behave as if you have it. Catherine, thank you for that. Ministers will meet their scientific advisers today to finalise plans for the next phase of easing the lockdown in england. The measures are reviewed every three weeks. An announcement is expected at todays downing street news conference. 0ur assistant Political Editor, norman smith, is at westminster. Norman, first of all, as catherine was saying, this test and trace system depends on a few things. It depends on people being absolutely open and honest with the contact tracers and those tests getting turned around really quickly. What is the government saying about its capacity to get in touch with people and, indeed, to get those test results turned around really quickly . At the moment, they are talking a good game on the test and trace system. They say they have around 25,000 people ready to trace people and that is more than enough,
they believe, to make the system operate, in terms of the tests. Yes, there is still quite a lot of tests that take longer than 2a hours. They havent set a date for getting 224 hours but that is their aspiration. In terms of people complying with these new rules, they remain hopeful. For getting it down to 24 hours. By and large, people have been a good deal more compliant than ministers had hoped for. Added to which, i think significantly, the new system will be relatively light touch to start with. There will be no fines, no checking up, you wont have placement knocking on the door demanding to know if you are cell self isolating. And crucially it will be fronted by the nhs. It wont be the government ordering you to do things, it will be clinicians asking you to do things. So there is a hope that that softly softly approach will land better with the public and people will be more ready to go
along with that. Before moving to the next stage, when the app is rolled out in the middle ofjune. But it is, as matt hancock was saying this morning, going to depend on people doing, as he puts it, their civil duty. All of this is about doing the very best that we can, not only my team, the people who are working in nhs test and trace, but also all of us who are participating those who test positive and those who are contacts and so get the communication from nhs test and trace that they need to self isolate. If everybody does our best, then we will get that rate of transmission down and well break the chain of transmission from the virus more often. I suppose in the real world, the hope is that for many people, reporting on who they have come into contact with will also be, to some extent, in the interests of their
family and friends because by and large, the people you come into closest contact with are your nearest and dearest. So there is a hope that people, because they will wa nt to hope that people, because they will want to protect their family and friends, will be quite determined to make sure those people do self isolate and do look after themselves. So, at the moment, i think they are broadly optimistic that people, even though these are entirely new restrictions, will be ready to go along with them. 0k, norman, thank you. Norman smith at westminster. Members of the Chinese Legislature the National Peoples congress have overhelmingly endorsed sweeping and controversial new security laws for hong kong. The bill, which now passes to chinas senior leadership, has caused deep concern among those who say it could end hong kongs unique status. Heres a look at what the law will do. Firstly, it will criminalise conduct in hong kong that Harms National Security a measure pro democracy campaigners fear could be used to target them. It permits chinas National Intelligence agencies to set up offices in hong kong, to oversee its enforcement. Beijing will also be able to place the measure into the basic law thats the mini constitution on how hong kong is run effectively bypassing the territories own lawmakers. Li zhanshu a member of the Chinese Communist partys Standing Committee welcomed the law at the closing ceremony of the National Peoples congress. Translation this meeting deliberates and approves a draft decision of the National Peoples congress for establishing a legal system and enforcement mechanism for hong kong, to safeguard National Security. This is a major move to practice one country, two systems and is also in line with chinas constitution and the basic law of hong kong. It also aligns with the fundamental interests of people in Mainland China, as well as hong kong residents. 0ur correspondent Stephen Mcdonell said that it was no suprise the National PeoplesCongress Overwhelmingly approved the legislation. Look, its a rubber stamp session. There was never going to be any resisting this at the National Peoples congress, but even so, 2787 in favour and only one against, with six abstentions, it is quite something however, what it means, though, is that this bill will now go to the next stage, which is that the Standing Committee of the National PeoplesCongress Works out the details of the law and writes it up and it could actually come into effect before the end of the year. Whats not clear is exactly what types of speech or exactly what actions might constitute treason under this new law. There are some concerns that even calling for hong kong independence
could be seen as secession. So, these crimes, like treason or secession, they are serious and, at the moment, people are being charged, activists, with rioting and assembly charges and, to tell the truth, not that many people have actually been punished under that process. Although, 7000, more than 7000 have been charged over the last year. Under this new law, well, these crimes like treason, that can mean decades in prison and so this is why theres been a lot of concern in hong kong amongst the pro democracy camp that it could be eroding the citys freedoms. Of course, those who defend the bill, though, would say that they protest have gone too far, theyve been too destructive and something had to be done to try and rein in this movement. Lets cross live to hong kong and speak to our correspondent martin yip. Tell us more about the reaction of those pro democracy protesters at what has been happening at the National Peoples congress, do they feel now that their efforts over the last year or so have been in vain, to some extent . Do they feel hong kongs status is changing permanently . Well, the answer to this question would actually be something that we still have to wait to see. The reason im saying so is that weve seen reason im saying so is that weve seen rather violent clashes in the past couple of days and over the last week, literally after this deal in beijing was announced in the previous weekend. But then, dave been venting their anger already. Theyve been talking about what you just mentioned, the demise of
prosperity in hong kong as well as one country, two systems. The game changer would be developments in the United States as well. You have the secretary of state, mike pompeo, reporting to the congress that they are not seeing hong kong as having autonomy any more and that might trigger some sort of response, at least from washington, dc. There would be more diplomatic conversations between beijing and washington, and there is some speculation at this stage. But that doesnt mean they are not angry at all and that is why we saw what we saw yesterday, the clashes on the street between the protesters and riot police. While also at the same time, we have other groupsjust after this law has been passed, im just reading a report from the local broadcaster, people from the arts
industry raising concerns about this law to be imposed by beijing. They are raising scenarios like if someone goes are raising scenarios like if someone goes to are raising scenarios like if someone goes to a are raising scenarios like if someone goes to a concert and someone sang a song someone goes to a concert and someone sang a song that there is lyrics that are seen as subversive, would those audience members end up being charged with the same charge . So there are so many questions to be a nswered so there are so many questions to be answered from beijing, from the Hong Kong Government to satisfy peoples worries. Thank you very much. Martin yip in hong kong. The headlines on bbc news. Test and trace systems get underway in england and scotland today as part of a more targeted approach to tackling coronavirus. Beijing overwhelmingly endorses a hugely controversial bill that paves the way for a tough new security law in hong kong. The number of people whove died with covid 19 in the United States has now passed 100 thousand. The coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 100,000 lives in america over the last four months. Its the highest total of any country in the world. 0ur north america correspondent, aleem maqbool, has been speaking to some of the families who have lost loved ones. Happy birthday to you. Friends and relatives of more than 100,000 people in america can nowjust cling to the memories of happier times before the coronavirus. My father was a really caring person and he just wanted to help people and he was really outgoing. He thought he was really funny Doug Lambrecht was one of the first confirmed deaths, back on the 1st march. As somebody who lost someone so close to them, and who was obviously very, very dear to you, so early on, when you saw the way this
was going in the country, how has it made you feel over the last couple of months . Its scary, its sad. I feel angry. We should have been listening to the doctors and the scientists. We should not have been listening to people talking about the stock market. Its natural that people are reaching for answers, for someone to be accountable, after scenes like mass graves being dug in new york and refrigerated trucks lining up to receive the dead once the morgues were full. If the lord says so, ill see you saturday. We now know that African Americans, like rhoda hatch, are still dying in disproportionate numbers. I think 100,000 is an extraordinary number. It means that theres a lot of pain and grief. But some of us i